


His Starting Point

by Kali Kalisto (kalishino)



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-11
Updated: 2012-08-11
Packaged: 2017-11-11 22:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/483797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kalishino/pseuds/Kali%20Kalisto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Mostly, all of his beginnings were different. Time varied and places seldom repeated. Even the nature of his own magic was unpredictable. Yet, every single time, there was something he could always rely on, a beating heart, even if its shape was never entirely the same. </p>
<p>And that would have been enough, except it wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	His Starting Point

Sometimes it was right in the middle of the best years of his lifetime, that unreliable line between youth and old.

Sometimes it was when his joints ached and his white beard was so long it could almost touch the ground.

Once, it happened when he was younger by a few years.

 

Sometimes, _he_ chanced upon him, a helpful stranger in his way and _he_ 'd stay and chat.

Sometimes, _he_ crashed upon his home, an odd man with eccentric ways and _he_ 'd be subtly forced to stay.

Once, it happened by accident, an insult bred a fight and both were tied together.

 

Sometimes, his magic was mostly gossips, fire, cleverness, dreams, logic and words from gods.

Sometimes, his magic was sparks, songs, lessons in water and trees and one slightly grumpy owl.

Once, he became magic, golden in nature and outlawed.

 

This time, he was old enough for grey to streak his hair but not old enough for his beard to be long.

This time, he came to him full of curiosity, having escaped his caretakers' vigilant eyes. He couldn't have been more than twelve.

This time, his magic was grass and whistles. Words in the wind and faces in the water. Knowledge and love.

Merlin's heart skipped a beat as he heard the joyous laughter from young Arthur. He couldn't keep his loyalty and devotion and love from soaring high at the sound. He knew this Arthur wasn't his Arthur, but all of them shared something and this laugh was  _his_.

Still, this Arthur was a  _living_  Arthur and so Merlin would stay by his side, protecting him and advising him but, most of all, secretly hoping. Incessantly waiting for the "You're an idiot,  _Mer_ lin" that would never come.

And when this Arthur died, Merlin would sat by the fire and cry, watching his memories from all Arthurs flash in the flames, watching as the memories from his Arthur burned brighter than all of them together. He would cry himself to sleep and dawn would always find him in front of the Crystal Cave.

He didn't know if he brought it with him or if the cave existed in all the worlds. Either way, it was always both his starting point and his final destination, for he would walk world after world, until he could find again his Arthur, the very first one, the one from the world where magic was gold.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I probably just took all the Arthurian legends and made an AU from them. Can't honestly say, though. I used two sources for references. One's a book and the other's a movie. Cookie if you guess them.
> 
> Originally posted on fanfiction.net


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